Austyralian government seeks to have Hicks 'court' case dismissed
The Australian Government is arguing in the Federal Court in Sydney that a case brought by lawyers for David Hicks should not be allowed to proceed.
Lawyers for Hicks have filed an application in the Federal Court, arguing that the Federal Government has breached its protective duty towards the Guantanamo Bay detainee.
The want to argue that the Australian Government should have asked the US Government to have Hicks returned to Australia.
But the Commonwealth is seeking to have the case dismissed before it is heard.
Solicitor-general David Bennett has told Justice Brian Tamberlin he has being asked to interfere in the area of international negotiations between executive governments, which is inappropriate.
A small group of Hicks supporters, including former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib, are in court for the hearing, which is set down for two days.
[Hicks' US military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, said, "I think the support here and knowing that there are people out there fighting for him helps him get day by day through the time that he sits in that cell by himself in solitary, 22 hours a day."]
Monday, February 26, 2007
COMET MISSION
European spacecraft completes Mars fly-by
A European spacecraft has successfully completed a fly-by of the planet Mars as part of its journey to a distant comet near Jupiter to shed light on some of the mysteries of the solar system and how it evolved.
This was a critical manoeuvre in Rosetta's 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet.
Rosetta's signal was picked up after 15 minutes of radio silence when the craft passed behind the red planet.
[At its closest, the spacecraft was flying barely 250 kilometres above the surface of Mars, using the planet's gravity to change course.]
A European spacecraft has successfully completed a fly-by of the planet Mars as part of its journey to a distant comet near Jupiter to shed light on some of the mysteries of the solar system and how it evolved.
This was a critical manoeuvre in Rosetta's 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet.
Rosetta's signal was picked up after 15 minutes of radio silence when the craft passed behind the red planet.
[At its closest, the spacecraft was flying barely 250 kilometres above the surface of Mars, using the planet's gravity to change course.]
Friday, February 23, 2007
EARTH CHANGES
A chilling possibility
In a 2003 report, Robert Gagosian cites "rapidly advancing evidence [from, e.g., tree rings and ice cores] that Earth's climate has shifted abruptly and dramatically in the past." For example, as the world warmed at the end of the last ice age about 13,000 years ago, melting ice sheets appear to have triggered a sudden halt in the Conveyor, throwing the world back into a 1,300 year period of ice-age-like conditions called the "Younger Dryas." It is also now known that the Gulf Stream weakened in 'Little Ice Age'
On 6 December 2005 Michael Schlesinger, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, leading a research team, said "The shutdown of the thermohaline circulation has been characterized as a high-consequence, low-probability event. Our analysis, including the uncertainties in the problem, indicates it is a high-consequence, high-probability event." See also: Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
SKY LIGHTS
Strange lights seen over southern Queensland
Stargazers have been reporting a strange sighting in the skies over southern Queensland last night.
Numerous residents on the Darling Downs have called the ABC to report a milky glowing cloud and lights moving slowly across the night sky between 3am and 4am AEST.
Former meteorologist and amateur astronomer, Mark Yandle, from Millmerran says he thinks it could have been an explosion in space.
"High in the south-west there was a cloud of gas about twice the size of a full moon and as you watched it over, say, the course of an hour it moved slowly north-eastward and gradually got larger and at the centre of this cloud there was even brighter bits to me that sounds as though it was an explosion of some sort in outer space," he said.
Stargazers have been reporting a strange sighting in the skies over southern Queensland last night.
Numerous residents on the Darling Downs have called the ABC to report a milky glowing cloud and lights moving slowly across the night sky between 3am and 4am AEST.
Former meteorologist and amateur astronomer, Mark Yandle, from Millmerran says he thinks it could have been an explosion in space.
"High in the south-west there was a cloud of gas about twice the size of a full moon and as you watched it over, say, the course of an hour it moved slowly north-eastward and gradually got larger and at the centre of this cloud there was even brighter bits to me that sounds as though it was an explosion of some sort in outer space," he said.
Monday, February 19, 2007
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Long arm of US law reaches Australia
Hew Griffiths has been in prison in Australia for nearly three years for allegedly breaching US copyright law. He has been charged by a grand jury in the US, but the offences alleged against him have never been tested, and the Australian Government has refused to resist an American demand to “surrender” him to face trial before the US District Court in Virginia.
Griffiths was born in England and has lived in Australia from the age of 7. His crime was breaching US copyright law via software piracy. The trouble is that Griffiths has never set foot in the US. He has lived all his life in Australia on the NSW Central Coast. He has been in custody for the past three years (he is 44 now) awaiting moves to extradite him to the US.
[Griffiths has already served more time on remand and awaiting extradition than anyone has served for a similar offence. Furthermore, the US authorities say they will not credit Griffiths with the time served.]
Hew Griffiths has been in prison in Australia for nearly three years for allegedly breaching US copyright law. He has been charged by a grand jury in the US, but the offences alleged against him have never been tested, and the Australian Government has refused to resist an American demand to “surrender” him to face trial before the US District Court in Virginia.
Griffiths was born in England and has lived in Australia from the age of 7. His crime was breaching US copyright law via software piracy. The trouble is that Griffiths has never set foot in the US. He has lived all his life in Australia on the NSW Central Coast. He has been in custody for the past three years (he is 44 now) awaiting moves to extradite him to the US.
[Griffiths has already served more time on remand and awaiting extradition than anyone has served for a similar offence. Furthermore, the US authorities say they will not credit Griffiths with the time served.]
EARTH CHANGES
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After 5m years the ancient Aral sea is now in it's death throes
Once the world's fourth largest lake, the mighty Aral Sea is now in it's death throws. Starved of it's lifeblood of the waters of the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya rivers, the sea has been shrinking for the last 40 years.
From the 1930s, the former Soviet Union started building large scale diversion canals to irrigate vast cotton fields in a grand plan to make cotton a great export earner. This was achieved, and even today Uzbekistan is still a large exporter of cotton. But the cost in ecological and human terms have been astronomical.
[The Aral Sea is one of less than 20 ancient lakes in the world, and is estimated to be more than 5 million years old.]
After 5m years the ancient Aral sea is now in it's death throes
Once the world's fourth largest lake, the mighty Aral Sea is now in it's death throws. Starved of it's lifeblood of the waters of the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya rivers, the sea has been shrinking for the last 40 years.
From the 1930s, the former Soviet Union started building large scale diversion canals to irrigate vast cotton fields in a grand plan to make cotton a great export earner. This was achieved, and even today Uzbekistan is still a large exporter of cotton. But the cost in ecological and human terms have been astronomical.
[The Aral Sea is one of less than 20 ancient lakes in the world, and is estimated to be more than 5 million years old.]
Thursday, February 01, 2007
THE BEE'S KNEES
Scientists abuzz with bee-sized aircraft
Scientists in Britain says they have figured out how insects fly, bringing bee-sized surveillance aircraft a step closer to reality. Experts from the University of Bath in south-west England have studied insect flight to find ways to build tiny aircraft that could be fitteded with cameras and sensors.
Scientists hope the discovery will help construct miniature aircraft that could be used for reconnaissance, border surveillance and spying.
Bath boffins found that bee wings are rigid at the front and flexible at the back.
The structure is the most efficient for generating maximum vortices, or spinning masses of air.
Scientists in Britain says they have figured out how insects fly, bringing bee-sized surveillance aircraft a step closer to reality. Experts from the University of Bath in south-west England have studied insect flight to find ways to build tiny aircraft that could be fitteded with cameras and sensors.
Scientists hope the discovery will help construct miniature aircraft that could be used for reconnaissance, border surveillance and spying.
Bath boffins found that bee wings are rigid at the front and flexible at the back.
The structure is the most efficient for generating maximum vortices, or spinning masses of air.
AUSTRALIA'S GUANTANAMO
ASIO error keeps Iraqi in detention until he went mad
The sole remaining detainee at Nauru has just been released after five years as a prisoner on the island nation's Pacific Solution prison.
The lawyer for an Iraqi refugee who has now been granted a visa says the decision proves ASIO was wrong to classify him as a threat to national security. He was refused a visa because ASIO had deemed him to be a security risk.
The Man's lawyer, Anne Gooley, said Muhammad Faisal was not a threat to Australia's national security, ASIO got it wrong.
"He should have had an opportunity to look at the things that ASIO relied on so that he could prove that he wasn't a threat."
[Muhammad Faisal was held on Nauru until last year, when he was moved to a psychiatric facility in Brisbane.]
The sole remaining detainee at Nauru has just been released after five years as a prisoner on the island nation's Pacific Solution prison.
The lawyer for an Iraqi refugee who has now been granted a visa says the decision proves ASIO was wrong to classify him as a threat to national security. He was refused a visa because ASIO had deemed him to be a security risk.
The Man's lawyer, Anne Gooley, said Muhammad Faisal was not a threat to Australia's national security, ASIO got it wrong.
"He should have had an opportunity to look at the things that ASIO relied on so that he could prove that he wasn't a threat."
[Muhammad Faisal was held on Nauru until last year, when he was moved to a psychiatric facility in Brisbane.]
ROGUE PILOTS
L/Cpl Matty Hull was in a convoy of light armoured vehicles near Basra.
'Rogue pilots' from US blamed for bombing UK tanks
L/Cpl Hull, Household Cavalry Regiment, died from multiple injuries inside his blazing Scimitar tank, despite efforts by colleagues to save him.
He was travelling in a column of light armoured vehicles near the southern city of Basra when it was reportedly attacked by a US A-10 "tankbuster" aircraft.
["British Forward Air Controller basically said they were rogue pilots that were working on their own," said Corporal Ashley Bell, who was also in the convoy.]
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